Special Collections

The VRC houses a number of special collections that vary in content and are comprised of older teaching materials: lantern slides and 35mm color slides, 17th through 19th-century original prints, large-format 19th-century photographs, as well as archival material from faculty emeriti. In addidtion, the VRC also manages several physical collections that provide important material content for our current grant-funded work.

The VRC special collections are open to researchers by appointment only. Contact visualresources@ucr.edu

Asian Art Slide Collection
The Asian Art Slide Collection houses over 9000 35mm slides of works of art and architecture. Organized in the Fogg Classification Scheme, the collection is physically housed in ARTS 329. These 9000 slides represent what remains of the former slide collection. This collection is open for research. VRC staff can assist with finding aids and database searches.

Cincinnati Lantern Slide Collection
The Cincinnati Lantern Slide Collection contains nearly 200 19th-century lantern slides that were gifted to the Visual Resource Collection by the Cincinnati Art Museum. The collection is formed mainly of images of the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago. A handful of Civil War era images are also contained in the collection. The Cincinnati Lantern Slide Collection has been fully indexed. Additionally, a small number of images have been digitized and can be found by searching the VRC’s ImageCloud Online Collection. This physical collection is located in ARTS 332.

Color Film Emergency Project, Society of Architectural Historians Slide Collections
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), several original slide collections amassed by members of the SAH are on long-term loan in the VRC. Portions of the collections are included in our work on the Color Film Emergency Project, which has received the generous financial support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gluck Fellows Program for the Arts. Collection finding aids are available on the Online Archive of California. Digitized images may be viewed on the Society of Architectural Historians Architecture Resources Archive (SAHARA) hosted on JSTOR. The physical collections may be viewed by appointment. They include:

• Jean France Photographs Collection
• John Stec Photographs Collection
• Mary Ellen Sigmond Photographs Collection
• Mirza Dickel Photographs Collection

John B. Vickery Collection
The John B. Vickery Collection is comprised wholly of 35mm color slides amassed by Dr. John Vickery over during his tenure at the University of California.  John Vickery (1925-2013), served as Executive Vice Chancellor, Faculty Relations and Academic Support from 1983-1993, a professor emeritus and former chair of the English Department at UCR, was renowned for early use of images in teaching English literature. The collection represents Dr. Vickery’s teaching collection as well as a large number of experimental art slides. Many of these creative experimentations are figured on the slide substrate itself and are labeled ‘Psychedelic’.

Lantern Slide Teaching Collection
The Lantern Slide Teaching Collection represents the original collection of pedagogical materials in use at the time of the establishment of the Department of the History of Art in 1954. These small-format lantern slides are organized in the Fogg Classification Scheme and reflect the early pedagogy of the department with a distinct emphasis on Western art historical works of art and architecture.

Malcolm Baker Papers
The VRC is home to a collection of publications and papers belonging to Distinguished Emeritus Professor Malcolm Baker. The majority of larger publications have been catalogued. Smaller publications such as offprints, leaflets, brochures and papers, are not yet catalogued, but have been moved to archival housing. The catalogue of larger publications is available for online search.

Master Print Collection
The Master Print Collection consists of a number of early prints by known artists given to the Department of Art History near the time of its inauguration.  This collection was intended as the core beginnings of exceptional pedagogical material.

Orazio Fumagalli Collection
The Orazio Fumagalli Collection consists of approximately 7,000 Stereo Realist color slides and accompanying cameras, viewers, and slide mounting materials. Orazio Fumagalli (1921-2004) was an Italian figurative sculptor that both worked and taught in the United States. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and taught at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. In 1964 he joined the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he founded the Fine Arts Department. In 1950, Fumagalli was awarded a Fulbright that allowed him to return to Europe to study for two years. The majority of his stereographs were photographed during that time. The collection is yet unprocessed but may be viewed by appointment in ARTS 329.

Roba di Roma Collection
Gifted to the VRC by the late Professor Emeritus Dericksen Brinkerhoff, the Roba di Roma Collection is a 19th-century travel album consisting of large-format original photographic prints featuring art and architecture from Rome and the surrounds. The individual photographs were digitized in 2015. Digital copies of photographs have been published to the ImageCloud Online Collection. In addition, the collection has been published using the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), and to JSTOR’s open access public collection. See links below.

VRC Books Collection
The VRC is home to a random number of books, journals, and reference materials related to visual resources, the study of art/art history, specific artists, and faculty publications.  These books and reference materials have come to the VRC over time and represent a number of out-of-print editions related to art history scholarship.